Sunday, August 30, 2009

"The workers loved L'Ordine Nuovo (this we can state with inner satisfaction) and why did they love it? Because they felt its articles were pervaded by that same spirit of inner searching that they experienced: "How can we become free? How can we become ourselves?" Because its articles were not cold, intellectual structures, but sprang from our discussions with the best workers: they elaborated the actual sentiments, goals and passions of the Turin working class, that we ourselves had provoked and tested. Because its articles were virtually a "taking note" of actual events, seen as moments of a process of inner liberation and self-expression on the part of the working class. This is why the workers loved L'Ordine Nuovo and how its idea came to be 'formed'."

Antonio Gramsci, August 1920, Selections from Political Writings (1910 - 1920), Lawrence and Wishart, London 1977